Germany had always been a divided country from the start of the Potstam meeting where that Berlin, the capital of Germany would be divided into four zones of occupation where the Allies (France, Britain and America) would occupy the Western Zones and the Soviets would occupy the Eastern zones. Whilst Russia’s aim was to cripple Germany, the other allies wanted to build it up into a strong country. It was due to this plan of Russia’s to cripple Germany that the Berlin blockade and airlift occurred. After Western Germany began to flourish in terms of economy the USSR decided to close all rail roads, canals and other forms of transport to Western Berlin in order to cripple them and 2.5 million people were cut off from food supplies. The result …show more content…
He realized that the old Soviet ways were causing major dents in the economy of the USSR and all the other Eastern Bloc countries. By doing this he took the first steps that would eventually lead to the demolition of the Berlin Wall.
Several major events occurred that lead to the demolition of the Wall.
22 months after the erection of the Berlin Wall, on 26 June 1963, President John F. Kennedy visited West-Berlin. He spoke to an audience of 450,000 and presented his ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ speech which was aimed at the Soviets and Berliners. It was a great morale boost for West Berliners who feared potential East Germany occupation of their territories.
On 12 June 1987, U.S. President Ronald Reagan also challenged Mikhail Gorbachev, the General Secretary of the Communist Party using his words ‘Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall’ to symbolise the increasing freedom in Eastern Berlin.
Another blow included the mass demonstrations. In most East German cities small groups gathered to discuss opposition to the Soviets and to hold small protests which later grew into mass demonstrations. In East Berlin, a group of intellectuals and students formed a group called Neues Forum (New Forum) that pressed for reforms within East Germany. However East Germany's leader at the time, Erich Honecker, was a strong communist who refused to consider reforms. The marches in East Berlin contained about 500,000